As of 10th October 2023 support for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 ceased.
The last update patch was released on Tuesday 10th October (second Tuesday of each month).
Do you have any Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 remaining in your infrastructure? If so, there are options to receive Extended Security Updates (ESU):
- Move the VM’s to Azure : with the VM’s being hosted in Azure they are automatically enabled for ESU and the updates are provided free of charge. Unless your organisation is already using Azure or planning to move to Azure, this isn’t necessarily the best option
- Azure Arc enabled servers : this is for servers that are on premise or in a hosted environment. Using the Azure portal and connecting through Azure Arc you can enroll your Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 (even SQL Server 2012) for ESU. The VM’s will remain on premise or in the hosted environment. A CSP with a reseller for Azure can be set up for the subscription
- Adding the ESU to an Enterprise Agreement : Microsoft aren’t making this easy. There isn’t a price list available and the only way Microsoft seem to allow this is if there is a technical reason why the first two options can’t be used.
Azure Arc is billed monthly and can be cancelled at any time. Therefore as VM’s with 2012 or 2012 R2 are removed, the VM can be removed from Azure Arc thereby reducing costs.
There are two options with Azure Arc:
- License the physical hosts – if the VM’s can be tied to a couple of hosts so they can’t move freely around the cluster then you can restrict the costs to these hosts only. Otherwise all host servers need to be licensed.
- License the individual VM’s – no restrictions on movement within the cluster. But each VM needs to be licensed for 8 cores as a minimum with all cores being licensed. We understand the packs are available to purchase in 16 cores that can be split over 2 VM’s.
Note : towards the bottom for ‘Additional Scenarios’ it states the following may be eligible for free ESU patch updates:
- Dev/Test
- Visual Studio
- Disaster Recovery
Roughly how much does it cost? The estimated prices are available here
How does it work?
With the Windows Server (WS) 2012/R2 and SQL Server 2012 ESUs delivered through Azure Arc, you must first onboard your servers to Azure Arc. This requires installing the Connected Machine agent on the servers, which will establish a connection to Azure. There are numerous deployment options for Azure Arc.
You can activate ESU’s through a point and click experience in Azure portal or the assignment of an Azure policy to your eligible Arc-enabled servers. Both deployment options will only enroll eligible Arc-enabled servers and activate billing if the server is not already enrolled in WS 2012/R2 or SQL Server 2012 ESU’s.
ESUs enabled by Azure Arc is an Azure billed service that will show up in Azure Cost Management. It is a fixed monthly price at the end of the month based on the volume and properties of activated WS2012 Arc ESU licenses. The number of days in the months and servers linked to the license do not affect the pricing; however, the number of cores specified with the license and its edition (Standard, Datacenter) do impact the monthly charge.
If you would like more information or would like to know if you have any Windows Server 2012/R2 or SQL Server 2012 in your environment then please contact us at [email protected] and we can discuss how we can be of assistance.
